Five years ago, documentary filmmaker Indira Cato decided to follow the Mexican activist Olimpia Coral Melo, a victim of digital violence and promoter of the first reform in Mexico that criminalizes and punishes the distribution and exhibition of non-consensual sexual images on social networks, and who is now the protagonist of ‘Llamarse Olimpia’.
“We know that Olimpia has been in this fight for many more years than us, she has made her way from scratch. The documentary aims to record in real time this fight, which seems to me to be historic, as was the approval of the national law,” Cato tells EFE on the occasion of her participation in the Best Documentary section at the Morelia International Film Festival (FICM), which begins this Friday.
The colloquially known as ‘Olimpia Law’ was approved in 2021 in 29 of the 32 states of Mexico, becoming one of the first in Latin America to protect women from these crimes along with Ecuador and Colombia.
“It’s about keeping the memory alive, but also about raising awareness because, even though the law is approved right now in Mexico, this is starting in other Latin American countries,” he comments.
Despite the great efforts made, mainly by women, to eradicate this violence on the internet, Cato emphasizes the high impunity that exists in countries like Mexico, where specifically more than 95% of crimes are not solved, according to the organization México Evalúa.
“The road is still going to be very long, because you can have the laws you want, but in countries like Mexico – and in most of the world – it is one thing for laws to be approved and another for them to be applied,” she says upset.
Although she considers the approval of the law reform “very useful,” the filmmaker emphasizes that “the real fight” lies in achieving a “change in society,” in which people “begin to question what they consume and spread” on social networks.
“We have to understand that what we do on social networks has repercussions on real people,” he adds.
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Technology surpasses legislation
In recent years, the frenetic advance of technology, mainly a greater development of Artificial Intelligence (AI), is becoming one of the greatest difficulties for reforms – such as the ‘Olimpia Law’ – to act in these cases of online violence, so for the Mexican director the focus should be on “understanding women as people” instead of “objects.”
“The Olimpia law was born because the Internet was not regulated and was a new thing. By the time the law arrived, the Internet had already advanced ten steps. So, of course, social awareness is much more important,” he emphasizes.
Regarding AI, the filmmaker is forceful and asks that “not ignore” the damage that these images can do, even if they are digital.
“We are people and we have the right to privacy. Many people ignore artificial intelligence saying that it is not your body, but the repercussions are exactly the same. We are women exposed to vulnerability with what that implies in a world like this,” she says.
‘Llamarse Olimpia’ will compete to win the FICM award, in the documentary category, as international feature films such as ‘El Eco’ (2023) by director Tatiana Huezo did in the past.
With information from EFE.
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